Two late updates!

Has it really been more than two weeks? Yikes!

OK, so here are some WIP updates. The first is very late as it was done more than a week ago, (although it's been only a week since I completed moving all the books etc back in, which you can't see on this lil' pic), and it's the living room from more or less the same angle as I posted about 3 weeks ago. I thought it would make more sense that way! It's been really just renewing in here. No big changes like in other rooms, just keeping things the same so as not to have to buy new furniture etc. Wait 'til you see the hall when it's done....

The second is the latest on the hardanger cushion. I haven't been able to do much on it lately, but as you can see, I've completed all the satin and cable stitching. Next is the backstitch which will make the flowers seem more complete, then it's on to the cutwork, which won't take long as there isn't much and it's just wrapped bars and square filet filling - both the fastest going. Then is the eternal beading - 888 beads to go on this baby! Eeeeeek! I plan on doing those for the flower centres in purple and those for the buds in turquoise blue. Nothing more done on the dog as yet, but I think I shall take him to Ireland next week and work on him there. He'll have been in 4 countries then!!!

What home looks like right now.....

Are you ready for this? Here's what the bedroom looks like with most of the movable contents of the living room in it, (although there are also 4 boxes in the hall, (see below), and 2 bags in the kitchen!). I managed to keep a space clear-ish to dry washing in, but it's some challenge to get in my wardrobe, I can tell you!! Notice too the splashes of paint down the walls and so on in here. It needs wall-papering yet and also most of the woodwork needs totally stripping and re-painting. Only the skirting board just needs rubbing down and re-doing. Sigh! Well, we do want it to look good, right?=)

<- The hall looks like this with all those living room boxes, decorating stuff and being in rotten, messy condition itself.=( Haven't decided on a colour scheme for the hall yet. Anyone got any ideas? I suppose the best thing I've thought of has been red and cream shades.

And this is the view from -> the living room door. Everything under cover, but the coving is totally mended and re-painted as is the ceiling. Sir also finished getting all the old wallpaper off and we plan to buy the new tomorrow. We get £150 of decorating vouchers then, which is a BIG help. He also wants to get some undercoating done tonight.

The weekend's WIPs

Eye-eye! Here's a close-up of the dog's eyes, (although I hope that was obvious!!) I'd done the eyes proper back in July, but put in the lids and the lower surrounds over the weekend. It's getting very crowded stitch-wise in that area! I'm glad to say that the next bit of the dog is to fill in the gaps in the forehead more or less down to the eyes and that is less intense. I can even do it in artificial light, as long as I make sure the colours are selected first.

I wanted to get all the satin stitching finished on the cushion and might have done so, but that I met the frog again! I put one element one line too far over and had to take it and the three that had been measured from it out. Not as bad as having to remove about three quarters of your work, like last time with this one, but a shame just the same. Hope to get it done today as well as the cable stitching around the four large white diamonds. The green back-stitching will take a while as there's a lot of it and I dread to think about the beading....

Oh, for the day these 2 are FINISHED! 'Happy dance' won't be in it! It'll be champagne breakfasts all around and a major street party!

Last night's work

Here's what we both did last night. Sir did some work in the living room and I did some stitching, (as I didn't feel well enough to help - got a rotten bug, AGAIN!). I got on with the hardanger cushion and have now got more than half of the thicker thread (#5) surface work done. With this one, there isn't a great deal of cutwork to do, but there is a lot of #8 cotton, thinner thread, stuff going on and well over 800 beads to contend with.....=( Here's what it looks like right now:

Sir fixed the part of the living room cornicing that was damged by the electricians putting that nasty trunking across the ceiling, inserted a new piece. Today it'll be fillled, smoothed and got ready for re-painting. He also fitted the proper living room light, which may seem a bit back-to-front to do that before re-painting the ceiling, but he says that, last time he did the celing around a temporary light fitting, the ceiling rose was larger and he ended up with an un-painted patch to re-do, so he'll just loosen this one when the time comes. I'm happy anyway as there's twice as much light as before and I love light.=) As well as sorting out the rest of the cornicing, he plans to smooth down this awful patch of plaster you can see here, strip the remaining wall-paper (from walls not visible on this shot), and also prepare paintwork for re-doing.

He's also almost through with his own read-through on his dissertation, then it's my turn to proof-read. I'm shopping with Mamma this morning, out with Jen this afternoon, then taking it easy for a bit to rest this virus through. I've been doing too much on a virus and need to rest, so Saturday is home day and I'm going to have a stitch-a-thon. Look out for updates on Sunday to both the dog and the cushion cover.=) I'm trying not to start anything new until these are done and they will both take a while and provide quite some variety within themselves. Then I'll feel much freer.

Oh yes, we got verbal (just waiting for written) confirmation that the wiring issues are resolved and have been awardrd £150 in re-decorating vounchers too! Yippee! That should pay for the stuff needed for both living room and bedroom. Going to buy paper on Tuesday, right after I register for a German course at LMU (Leeds Metropolitan University). Looking forward to moving Sir's language forward again.

Re-start of renovation works!

Hi guys! 6 comments from this morning's posting already, WOW! Thanks for all the lovely responses to the finishes on the posting below.

So, who remembers the major home renovations from June? Well, they got frozen for about 2½ months, but now that Sir has all but finished his MA dissertation, (just checking and proof-reading to do), he's about to get on with the living room. We're having guests arriving in 9 days' time and, as that is our 'guest bedroom', it needs to be a bit better than it is. Have a look at what we've been looking at for the past 11 weeks or thereabouts! That along with several packed boxes, bags and half laden, dusty shelves as there was no point in putting stuff back beyond what was needed to use the dining table (and stop it collapsing under the weight of so many books!). So, the fact that it should be totally re-done including new carpet in just over a week is a nice thought.

Then the bedroom, re-painting the kitchen and bathroom, painting and papering the hall.... No danger of life getting boring around here, huh?

Two Finishes!

Yippee! Finally got the birds and the needlecase finished.=) The stitching show motivated me to get on with my WIPs (and at least one of the 2 chums I went with to get on with hers too....), and here are the results.

Here are the birdies: It's not at all a good photo as you can't really see the beading in the flowers at all. There are actually beads and long-stitches in there, which look fab in real life, but don't show well on here.=(

And here are the front and the back of the completed needlecase. I'm quite proud of it as the sewing is quite neat for a change and I managed to get the stitches that hold the 'leaf' in to be virtually invisible along the outer edge.=)

Stitched in 'Cotton Candy' Caron Watercolors and Wildflowers threads on pink Oslo fabric.

Nope, I'm not dead...=)

I'm still here, somewhere!!! Haven't been doing any stitching to speak of lately, so there wasn't anything to post here. Sorry to be so dull.

Anyway, I went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in Manchester yesterday afternoon with a couple of girlie friends and got 5 pieces of fabby organza (2 whites, 2 greens and 1 aqua blue), great for leaves and insect wings in the stumpwork pieces I'll get around to one day. I also got Helen M Stevens' 'World of Embroidery' for half price and thus completed my collection of her books.

The show kinda spurred me on to do some stitching, so I almost completed the background on the chaffinches and will finish that off, plus the top-stitching on the birds today. That will just leave adding the beads and long-stitching on the flowers and it'll be done. Also want to finally get that needlecase sewn up. I did prepare a piece of bright pink fabric as a backing for it - spent hours hemming it up to size by hand, then realised that I just didn't like it as a backing and wanted white instead. I'm just going to use felt as it doesn't need edging up and will then sew the flannel leaf in, (which also needs some sort of trimming.....), and that's another project done. Planning for some progress this week.

Then it's back to the dog and the cushion cover. I will feel a LOT freer with my stitching once those are done, esp. That pesky mutt! (But I will, of course, be immensely proud of him when he's done.....)